hockeyball
Registered User
- Nov 10, 2007
- 21,552
- 886
Fatigue, yes. A lack of confidence in their goalie, I'm not sold on that.
In the first 8 games of the season the Sharks scored 4 or more goals in regulation six times, three of those times scoring 6 or better. They've only had six 4+ goal games over the last 2 months, with only one 6-goal game since mid-October.
When you're scoring 4+ goals in 75% of your games, goaltending becomes almost irrelevant (aka: "The 2010 Chicago Blackhawks Championship Story"). Goaltending confidence isn't why they were averaging nearly 4 goals the entire 1st month of the season, and I don't think the lack of confidence adequately explains why their scoring rate suddenly dropped more than a goal per game in the months since.
The Sharks have mustered just 8 goals (in regulation) over their last 8 games, have been held to less than 30 shots on goal 4 times in that span, and that has resulted in just 1 regulation victory.
Niemi hasn't been stellar of late, but Niemi (or confidence in him) hasn't been the major issue. Heck, Stalock started 3 of those games, and played in a fourth. Their combined GAA over the last 8 games (discounting for empty netters) is sub-2.00. That's pretty good. The problem is, the Sharks offensive production has been sub-1.00.
Definitely agree with the need for rest, I definitely want Stalock to get more playing time, and I would certainly never say no to Niemi regaining his form from last year. But from a larger perspective, if the Sharks can go back to scoring 3.8-4+ goals per game instead of 1, it really makes no difference if Niemi's GAA is closer to 2.60 than 2.20.
My point is specifically that the offensive production is a direct result of over conservative play because of a low confidence level in the goalie (either goalie, for different reasons)